15 Feb Capitolo 1: Bosmink (homerecording, strange pop)

With the help of imagination I’m taking off to San Francisco on my cloudmobile. Someone told me that in San Francisco, in his bedroom, Bryce Albright rules on the synth. His stage name is Bosmink. And I decided to interview him.

CLOUD TRAVELLER (at the telephone): I’m coming to take the interview on my cloudmobile. You are from San Francisco, but where I have to land to talk with you?

BOSMINK (at the telephone): I live in the city of San Francisco in a little neighborhood called Glen Park. I have a flat with my wife, Vanessa, and my two cats, Hamilton and Captain. Come here.

After a few hours of travel I reach Bryce to his house. We present ourselves and immediately Bryce shows his studio.

BOSMINK: My studio is in my bedroom and I can play as loud as I want because my crazy neighbor upstairs doesn’t care if I make a lot of noise. It’s ideal for a musician like me because my motivation comes and goes like the wind so if I had to get dressed and walk to a studio separate from my home I would be grumpy about it!

CLOUD TRAVELLER: Bryce Albright is Bosmink, why Bosmink? What is your story as a musician?

BOSMINK: The name Bosmink comes from my wife. We live near a street called Bosworth. She took away the “worth” and added a “mink” to the end. I originally wanted to be called Human Faces. I thought Human Faces sounded similar to Talking Heads, which I love. My story as a musician comes from my home town, Toldeo, Ohio. When I was 19 I bought an Alesis SR-16 from a guy for $50. I made some hip hop beats and recorded several of them on a 4 track tape recorder in my parents attic. I didn’t do much recording for several years until I met my wife and she took me to an STS9 concert at the Fillmore in SF. STS9 has a great synth player, David Phipps, who made huge impression on me. MGMT came out with their first album around the same time and it inspired me to buy some equipment and start producing tracks. I loved how MGMT was so spacey, strange, and pop. I love classic rock like The Beatles and Pink floyd but I was also excited by bands like the Flaming Lips, Kraftwerk, Of Montreal, and I especially love the beats of Apex Twin. I try and use melodies from classic psychedelic rock times and fuze them with rhythms from hardware drum machines. Rhythm is the core component to all my music. I think my sound grew when I purchased a Korg electric SX1. It has the sound quality of a toy, which is a favorable sound for me. I bought the MX a year later and I use them both on most of my tracks.

CLOUD TRAVELLER: I saw your live videos, and heard your songs on Soundcloud. Sure you are an independent musician. What means for you be an independent musician? Can I say you make home recording music?

BOSMINK: Being an independent musician means that nobody but myself is around to make decisions about any aspect of my music. I produce music with a love that nobody else is qualified to make. I have my influences and my own capabilities / limitations. My music is certainly home recording music! It’s lo-fi. If I had to sit in front of a computer and produce a perfectly engineered track I would likely lose my interest in creating something so eclectic. The limitations of a home recorded track have shaped my sound in such a way that I can’t imagine being true to what I do any other way.

CLOUD TRAVELLER: Other places where we can find Your Music?

BOSMINK: You can find my music on Youtube, Bandcamp, and Facebook but those are limited tracks. My live video recordings deviate from the produced tracks and so I post most of those on Youtube and Facebook.

CLOUD TRAVELLER: It happened to whistle some of your tunes in my car: are very particoular and personal. I understood the meaning of Strange Pop?

BOSMINK: Strange Pop is the genre that I could proudly place my tunes! It ain’t pop.

CLOUD TRAVELLER: It’s always difficult to talk about musical influences, but what do you say about your musical background?

BOSMINK: I’m untrained. A folk singer named Benny Atkins told me, long before I decided to make music, that anyone could be a musician if they had rhythm. He said that, even if you’re only playing one note, it was music if it had rhythm. I live by that. My biggest influence is good rhythm. I hear Gamelan music or African music or dance music like trance or house. The sound of a bus driving by has rhythm. The elevator door opening. Nature. I’m influenced a lot by the positive feedback I get from previous tracks. if someone says, “I love the way the music intensifies her” I’m influenced to reproduce that feeling in another song.

CLOUD TRAVELLER: If I understand you use only hardware: would you talk about your instrumentation?

CLOUD TRAVELLER: I don’t know if the question has sense, but how does born a Bosmink’s tune?

BOSMINK: Part of creating unique music is challenging yourself. Sometimes I start with a beat and sometimes I start with a sound or a looped noise. I find the greatest challenges are born from the different approaches to a song. There are times when I whistle a tune and reproduce it but most often I make tracks with little rehearsal. I’m impatient and I think most everything I make comes directly from a rush to make something. I make a song that I want to hear and that nobody else will make. I’m not a virtuoso so I rely on my ability to arrange sounds in such a way that they make sense musically. My approach is much like the approach of a collage artist. I spend long hours making sounds and patterns and when I sit down to make a track I shuffle through the catalogue of things I made until I find one that fits.

CLOUD TRAVELLER: You have a “long distance” band called somE CREATUReS, can you talk about it? I mean, how was it born? It’s hard to play with people in other countries?

BOSMINK: somE CREATUReS was the idea of Alex Puchta (Plex Auchta). We listen to each others music for some time and he eventually contacted me to see if I would be part of a project with him and Chris Newberry (Swivelized Sounds). Alex makes Psych Rock and Chris makes Noise. I respected both of them as musicians so I thought it would be fun.

When Alex sent me the first track (soundcloud.com/some-creatures/some-creatures-side-a-1) I didn’t know what I was going to do. It took me about a month before I could find where my sound would fit. Chris made some noise and we all fell in love with the result. We’re working on the third part now. It’s a huge challenge and our communication has been crucial. All three of us have big personalities so we haven’t always gotten along well but we still manage!

CLOUD TRAVELLER: You also did great songs with The Sporz and Gordin Bones. Can you tell something about?

BOSMINK: The Sporz (soundcloud.com/thecapz) is one of my closest friends. He was the first sounclouder who I made a connection with. His lyrics are very well done and they sit atop wonderful and whimsical music. We’ve collaborated many times but we communicate often enough that I would consider him a brother. Gordin Bones (soundcloud.com/gordin-bones) was one of the first people who I felt like I was in a club with. He makes Strange Pop music. Unfortunately his life ended too soon and I’ll never get to know him. He inspired so much in so many people and he should be credited for being at the top of his game. We collaborated one time (soundcloud.com/gordin-bones/01-umbrella) and I felt like I was handing a stupid piece of music to him. When he returned the song with his work in it I was blown away. He was a real gift to people who love music.